Inside Moscow's Secret Arsenal

When the U.S. ended its bioweapons programs, the Soviets responded by ramping up their efforts.

By

Jennifer Siegel

Jan. 31, 2013 1:59 p.m. ET

On March 26, 1975, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) came into force. The 85 nations ratifying it, including both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, pledged never in any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile, or otherwise acquire or retain biological weapons or toxins for hostile purposes.

Yet at precisely the same time that the Soviet regime was openly committing the state to dismantling its biological-warfare programs, it was covertly expanding them. In the years following the BWC's implementation, the Soviets...